360 360 Landfall Gone Wrong
The Cutter with the First Battalion raced toward the planet’s surface as the other three Battalions made contact with the Scourge ships.
They didn’t dock, that was only to the advantage of the Scourge, but they exited the Cutters and used the Gravity Control and magnetic plating functions of their Mecha to lock themselves to the Cutter’s exterior.
A wave of drones raced out from Terminus to keep watch and assist where needed, while a furious barrage of fire smashed into the Scourge mothership, which went into an immediate frenzy at the unexpected level of damage that it was taking.
The Cutters had Orbital Bombardment level weaponry, and the Scourge mothership was ill-equipped to deal with it, having already lost their main shielding, causing them to start taking casualties to their automaton forces before they had even made contact with their newly arrived target.
Aboard Terminus, the passengers were staring in a mixture of awe and horror as Nico relayed the background of the scourge as subtitles at the bottom of the video feeds, as well as an ongoing narration of the battle that she was broadcasting while she piloted the drones taking the footage.
Normally, the scourge did as they had to the other two forces here, they took their targets by surprise, and then made for close combat to recover as many resources as possible from the target vessels before retreating.
That was not how this battle was going through, and the Scourge Mind was not pleased.
[Warning, Unorthodox Attack Detected]
The warning from Max’s System wasn’t anything he had seen before, and it came at the worst possible moment. They had just made landfall, and the first members of the First Battalion were just stepping off of the Cutter to engage the Scourge who were threatening their Reaver Allies.
The Scourge Lander flashed with blinding white light, and everything went dark. All power was knocked out, not only to the Mecha, but to the Cutter, and to both human forces on the surface. It seemed to be mutual destruction, as the Scourge had also fallen to the ground, disabled by their own attack, and Max was racing to get his Mecha back online.
He didn’t even have communications to talk to the rest of his forces.
What he did find was that his Mobile Suit tucked away in his locker, was still operational, unlike everything else. Even the power packs for the backup pistols had been discharged by whatever the Scourge had done.
Max force activated all the other Mobile suits, so at least the other Super Heavy Pilots would realize that they had an option if the fighting wasn’t over, and donned the protective armor as he continued to try to get the reactor back online.
It looked like a lost cause for the moment, as the energy matrix of the crystal structures was entirely wiped out, but the Super Heavy Mecha still carried smaller fusion power plants as a backup, originally intended to be a supporting power supply for the shields and emergency supply, if they should start taking large amounts of damage.
That system Max might be able to get back online if he had a bit of time since his Optimization Function was telling him to follow a reboot protocol.
[Commander, the Scourge are starting to move again. Please advise.] Major Miller asked frantically over the radio in his Mobile Suit.
[Let the Technicians start getting everything back online. That’s their job. Command Staff, exit your Mecha in the Mobile Suits and keep the Scourge from overrunning the Battalion. Do not go far from your Mecha, just keep the Scourge off the Pilots as long as you can.] Max ordered.
[Force Reboot Initiated: Fusion Plant online in 240 seconds] The secondary power plant of Enduring Rage came to life with a small infusion of power from the Mobile Suit, then broadcast its status to the other Mecha in the area.
Using the power of the transmission was enough to activate the passive transponders in the Heavy Mecha, and begin their own reboot sequence, but the Corvette Class and Line Mecha would have to wait until they could be repaired, or the overheated circuits reset themselves, assuming that was enough to salvage the situation.
Max climbed to the roof of Enduring Rage to get a better signal and received an incoming supply notification from the Drone Pilots.
Nico had noticed their plight and sent them a supply drop. A small collection of Plasma Cannons, and a crate of organic power packs which could be plugged into the power transfer port on the Light Mecha to get them temporarily back online.
They would die again in an hour or less if they used their energy weapons, but that might be just long enough.
[New orders. Get the Light Mecha online while everyone else reboots.] Max ordered as he grabbed a Plasma Cannon from the drone’s hold.
The Scourge force was already coming his way, and twenty shots wouldn’t last long, but he only needed four minutes. Two hundred and forty seconds and the Mecha would be back online and they would be able to eliminate the scourge threat.
Max charged forward with long strides, running the Mobile Suit on minimal power assistance so that he had more for the Plasma Cannon, and relying on his own immense strength.
The Cannon flashed twice as he ran, dropping a pair of Scourge Sentinels that were in the lead, sending mechanical tentacles flying in every direction as they exploded, and drawing all of their attention.
If they had emotions, Max would say that they were surprised that they had been shot at, and they were definitely not happy about it.
The Cannon couldn’t fire fast enough to keep them off of Max, but three more dropped in the seconds before the Sentinels made it to Max, where they were met with his sword and the armored boot of the Mobile Suit.
“Hey, are humans supposed to be able to do that? The Commander just kicked through the head of a Scourge Sentinel. Our data says that they are a lightweight composite alloy armor.” One of the Innu students asked Nico who paused her narration to reply.
“The System, made up of Nanobots comprising a wide network of Artificial Intelligence, rebuilds the bodies of our Pilots, to the System’s estimation of optimal performance. At this point in his life, Commander Keres is roughly six times as strong as a standard human and much more durable.
He could easily exert enough force even with an armored boot to damage the Sentinels, though it will cause damage to his suit in return.” Nico replied, still broadcasting to the whole ship so that everyone would understand what was going on.
“That energy Sword, my analysis says that it is based on a standard Laser Torch. In effect, he is using an industrial tool to disassemble the Sentinels in the most brutally efficient way possible.” One of the Innu observed, making Nico and the staff of the ship laugh.
That was one way to put it. The Scourge Sentinels certainly looked like disassembled scrap when Max was finished with them, and the pile of robotic bodies was growing by the second.